Garrison Killer: Your Jungle Home Companion

"I'm the greatest swordsman who ever lived."
-Mad Mardigan, Willow (1988)

This deck is designed for a 4-player expedition into the Forgotten Ages. My companions are going to be Rex Murphy, Sefina Rousseau, and a Mystery (Wo)Man yet to be determined.

My mission, which I've already chosen to accept without reading the fine print, is to keep them safe from all sorts of snakes and other things you'd be terrified to find in a jungle.

We are going in (mostly) without spoilers, so we're not certain exactly what we should aim for. Toward that end, I'm aiming to design a generic build that I'll tinker with as we move forward. Fortunately, it seems as if Mark is generally flexible enough when it comes to drawing lots of cards, taking lots of damage, and killing lots of things.

Step 1: Sophie

"They say behind every great man there's a woman. While I'm not a great man, there's a great woman behind me."
-Meryll Frost, The Port Arthur News (1946)

It's difficult to talk about Mark without talking about Sophie. More than anything else, potentially, Sophie is what makes a Mark deck play very differently from the other Guardians as Mark always has +2 to any skill for any check at the cost of taking damage. (Offer not valid where prohibited; some restrictions apply.)

Because of this, Mark can effectively trade 1 damage for 1 Expected Courage. More over, Mark can (almost) always exchange 1 damage for 1 card draw through his character ability. The combination of the effects means Mark doesn't need to play with nearly as many skill cards and can focus instead on other effects, such as...

Step 2: Healing

"That was doctor assisted homicide."
-Medic, Team Fortress 2 (2007)

Because Mark thinks that damage hurts so good in Step 1, the goal in Step 2 of deck design is to heal the damage that Mark is taking to boost his skills and draw his cards. Toward this end:

• Second Wind: 1 resource for 2 healing + 1 card? I'll have what she's having.
• Emergency Aid: 2 resources for 2 healing is less appealing than the above option, yet this can be used directly on an ally, which pairs very well with Beat Cop (2).
• First Aid: A rather expensive way to heal given the above options (2 resources + 1 action to play it + 3 actions to use it, depending on how you want to count it), yet it's reusable and can heal both damage and horror. It will eventually be upgraded to First Aid (3) which is significantly more flexible and efficient.
• Smoking Pipe and Painkillers: These cards don't reduce the total number of damage and horror in your play area, yet they can be very helpful for moving these from Mark to allies and exchanging damage-for-horror or vice versa depending on the game state as you dance through the pain.

Step 3: Finding Clues

"I'm not the mechanic here, Ironsides! I mostly just hurt people!"
-Johner, Alien Resurrection (1997)

Yeah. No. I could build Mark with Flashlight, Evidence!, and Scene of the Crime if I wanted to, and I'm going to hold my companions accountable for being better clue finders than I'm going to be.

Step 4: Kill All The Things

"You take care of me, Simon. You've always taken care of me. My turn." [she dives through the closing doors, grabs the medikit, and throws it to Simon just before the doors close]
-River Tam, Serenity (2005)

There's nothing all that special here compared to other guardian builds. You've got your staples of Machete, .45 Automatic, Beat Cop, and Guard Dog. The Venturer Brothers are present mostly for supplying future weapons, Preparations will help you find what you're looking for the gun of your dreams in your deck, and Dynamite can be surprisingly efficient when conversation doesn't work.

Step 5: Leveling Up

"What doesn't kill you makes a fighter, footsteps even lighter; Doesn't mean I'm over 'cause you're gone..."
-Kelly Clarkson, Stronger (2011)

I doubt there's anything surprising here either. My first 10 planned experience points are:

• Charisma: This deck has quite a few allies and Mark could use a more people skills to keep more allies in play.
• Beat Cop (2) x2: Obviously.
• Reliable x2: If you can't kill big things, then you're gonna have a bad time. Depending on how things are going, I'll swap out either Take the Initiative, 1x Smoking Pipe, and/or 1x Painkillers.
• Ever Vigilant x2: Mark has a lot of assets and needs money to pay for them. This card is perfect for that. Swap out additional cards on the list above to make room for them.

Step 6: More Leveling Up

"So what do you need? Besides a miracle."
"Guns. More guns."
-Tank and Neo, The Matrix (1999)

While Lightning Gun is clearly a good option, I prefer the Shotgun for fighting the armies of darkness on Standard difficulty.

Because of Mark's strong card draw and the copy of Prepared for the Worst, I'm going to try being comfortable with only running 1x copy of Shotgun. I'll pair this with Extra Ammunition for an even 5 XP and remove two of my existing weapons to make room for these cards (likely Survival Knife). This provides three options for extra ammunition with 2x Venturer.

The next set of 5 XP will likely go toward a combination of First Aid (3), another Extra Ammunition, Marksmanship, and Emergency Cache (3) to fuel Venturer or First Aid.

Step 7: Even More

"I want the works, I want the whole works,
Presents and prizes and sweets and surprises
Of all shapes and sizes
And now; Don't care how; I want it now"
-Veruca Salt, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)

At this point Mark has the core of his deck in place. Everything else beyond this point is icing on the cake. Options include:

• Stick to the Plan
• Second Charisma
• Police Badge
• "Eat lead!"
• Well Prepared (with First Aid (3) or Shotgun)
• Dynamite Blast (2)